Where I have been...what I have learned...and my warped thoughts on it all!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Overdue Update

Welcome back Loyal Readers!

I know, I know, it has been a while, and you were actually beginning to forget I ever existed!!! I have had a busy start to the week already, after another fantastic weekend with Little One. At the request/urging/begging of a friend, I applied for a 2nd part time job, bringing me up to 3 total. Interview was cake/a joke, and I have my orientation next Monday. I work full time in a big city Trauma Center on nights as a medic, I am extremely contingent at my former employer still as a road medic, and I am now a proud member of the Oompa Loompa EMS squad. If you had ever seen the uniforms, you would understand...

At my full time job, we use a 2 step triage system. The first step just covers vitals, a very brief narrative, and is designed to get the patient into the computer system and able to be placed in a room. The second step is much more thorough, covering full medical, surgical, psychiatric, and social history, along with review of meds, allergies, and "What does very good care mean to you." I worked a short lil 8 hour shift today, and spent the first half of it, dodging from room to room doing the second step triage. Needless to say, I got more practice at it than I would have preferred. On the other hand, I learned how to do full visual acuity checks, found out how fast a pregnancy test can come up positive (about 10 seconds!) and figured out how to put in orders for the radiology department.

The second half of my shift was spent out in the Land of Unicorns and Rainbows, or as more commonly known, Triage. As usual, I worked my non-sunny magic on the waiting room, and turned it from a steady but consistent flow of patients into a morass of huge numbers registering, and then waiting for a room. Of course, that is not nearly enough fun, I had to throw my usual Winged Simian Minion into the mix, and come up with several rather acute patients for the nursing staff in the back to untangle. Among those, just hitting the highlights of course, was a wee one with some impressive respiratory distress, and a younger lady with a history of cerebral aneurysm who felt like she was having another one. Always a good time when you deliver a patient from triage and head directly to the Attending physician to make sure they are aware of the happy happy good times you have just blessed them with.

Now, it is home, and time to curl up with SWMBO, who has long since headed to the land of Nod. Tomorrow brings a regular 12 hour shift of fun and excitement, plus trying to make sure I am conscious in time to see The Family before I go to work.

On a better note, next weekend will be spent with 50,000 of my closest friends working EMS for that there Former Employer, working Rock On The Range..to those who are at least somewhat familiar with modern Rock Music, take a gander at this and I am sure you can see exactly how I will earn money doing nothing but listening to great music (*insert eye roll here*). Just looking at the headliners for both Saturday and Sunday night, we gone be biiiiiizzzzy.